Fantastic Plastic

Uncles and plastic

2010-01-19T21:06:00.004+11:00

It was sometime in the early 80s when my late Uncle Rommel (something about the name already betrayed his interests) purchased and built in front of these four young boys a T-34 tank. It was just an ordinary looking thing, but the way he built it was just downright interesting. He bent the fenders. He punctured the sides for battle-damage. He dirtied it up so much it actually looked like a tank!

And so as a tribute to that exciting time, I build this exciting little kit. Its the old Tamiya T-34; in all its vintage glory. But looking at the bent fenders, the scruffy, dirty weathering, and the smell of drying paint brings back those days.

Phabulous

2009-03-30T15:11:00.003+11:00

The F-4 Phantom has, and always will be, a favorite of mine. The bent-wing, bent-tailed, gas-guzzling dump truck that poses as an interceptor may not be pretty, but you have to admit if an aircraft ever got pumped up full of steroids and testosterone, this would be it.

My first Phantom kit would probably be the old 72nd Matchbox kit (I think I posted about that a few years back). Then my mom sent me this massive box with 5 Revell F-4Es - the old Thunderbirds set, back in the 70s. Oh what joy - the dogfights we had then. Then I remember one of my favorite uncles getting a 48th scale one. Yes, they come in bigger sizes.

This is a tribute to all those Phantoms of the past. The Italeri F-4J, done as the CAG bird of VF-102 "Diamondbacks" circa 1968. Along with another Italeri J, done as a "Tomcatter" of VF-31, they were all part of a nice club display involving Phantoms we did to celebrate its 50th year.

Keep on building.

So I laid an egg

2009-02-09T14:47:00.003+11:00

And the egg hatched. Leave it to the Japanese to think of something as crazy as making airplanes look like... eggs. Its up there with anime eyes and manga hair. Here's the Hasegawa F-4J Phantom eggplane. Mean and menacing isn't it? I got this online and I had a ball building this - the utter lack of reference photos and panel lines just blew my mind and I loved every single second of it. And it isn't just the Phantom. Hasegawa released a whole slew of eggplanes in the 1970s and its all back with a vengeance. Kabuto Koji!!!

Bug me

2008-06-03T09:42:00.003+10:00

And it took me 6 months to actually realize that it is now the year 2008. Its getting to be long and rare since the last post, but we'll try and remedy that. A lot of plastic has been cracked open and built since November, and a lot of memories are being build up with every build. And that's the point of it all, isn't it?

At any case, here's something I got from a very memorable trip to Manila. Its one of the newer kits from one of the newer kit makers in the block. And if this is anything to go about the shape of things to come for the hobby, then its never been a better time to be a modeller.

Its the 1/48 Hobby Boss F/A-18A Hornet. It took me three trips to Greenhills to decide if I really wanted to get it, but I did in the end. And what trips! I ate at Chowking once, Max's twice, and Yellow Taxi (a pizza place) once. Its all about the food now.

What a pfeiling!

2007-09-06T11:36:00.000+10:00

I hated to do it, but there are so many puns with this plane's name. This is the Tamiya 1/48 Dornier 335A Pfeil (Arrow). Its a big kit, and a beauty to build. It is so seriously nice building, I am so relaxed throughout the entire process. No worries with fit, markings, decals anything. It even comes with a metal nose weight. Tamiya even provided a massive printed camo scheme guide which you use a template for painting. If this is how model kits have progressed from the 80s, then... WOW! Keep 'em coming! I Pfeil good!

Fascination

2007-08-16T09:06:00.000+10:00

Ever since seeing bright red F/A-18 Super Hornets in VFA-102 "Diamondbacks" CAG colors in the last Australian airshow, I have been on a Navy plane binge. Phantoms, Hornets, Orions, Crusaders, Tomcats, Corsairs, Prowlers... did I say Phantoms? Being a fan of the new re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series hasn't helped either. Its been a gull grey, hi-viz kaleidoscope since, a plethora of dull highlighted by red, black, yellow and double nuts. At the rate I am going, I am probably going to have a Carrier air group ready in a few months, and needing the space to display it all. I'll probably start doing what carriers do; start folding wings, hang things off edge and maybe send a few of the birds up on CAP and get that Alert 5 bird on the catapult.

So here is the latest addition to the air group. Hasegawa's F/A-18 Super Hornet in Lo-viz markings of VFA-103 "Jolly Rogers" and Revell's P-3C Orion (re-boxed Hasegawa) Update III in VP-30 out of NAS Jacksonville, FL. Both in 1/72 scale and finished around the same time (there was a warm day that freakily hit Melbourne in the middle of winter.) (It helps airbrushing.)

Big guns

2007-08-16T08:46:00.000+10:00

I picked this 1/35 Trumpeter Emil Sturer (short nickname for the SonderkraftzerlungIdontknowwhat!) in 2005 on my last visit to Manila. Its a mighty big gun! I was so excited in building it, it took me all of one week to build, paint and finish it. There were only two built back in WW2, but with Trumpeter blaring out the charge of the young turks in the model manufacturing industry, we can expect a lot of new stuff. The big guns of the past, Tamiya, Revell, Hasegawa, Italeri, and to a degree, even Airfix, are not alone anymore. There has never been a better time to be a plastic modeller; well, maybe until next month's releases.

The Sundowner

2007-07-03T09:47:00.000+10:00

What is it with me and Navy aircraft nowadays? Upon seeing the Diamondbacks on display at the recent Aussie airshow, I can't get enough of gull gray aircraft with colorful markings. Anything with either a CAG or double nuts for numbers. Good heavens, does this mean I have found a niche?

I am currently undergoing a US Navy plane phase. It didn't start this year though. Last Christmas a good friend in IPMS gave me a present. The Hasegawa 1/72 F-8E Crusader in VF-111 markings, circa 1966. Having seen the plane in "Dogfights" action (courtesy of the History Channel), I was very pleased that this came around when it did, and it did come out rather pretty. Face it, shark-mouths work.

But its all about the story behind it, as this blog goes. This is another story of how giving is better than recieving. Simon really wanted that other kit, and I was more than happy to give it to him. Looketh what generosity hath wrought.

Rolling Thunder!

2007-05-10T14:07:00.002+10:00

Finally done: the classic, old Revell 1/72 scale Blue Angels set with four F-4Js in classic 'Nam markings. One bird representing each:
• CAG bird from VF-111 "Sundowners" from USS Coral Sea
• CAG bird from VF-11 "Red Rippers" from USS Forrestal
• Bird 108 from VF-102 "Diamondbacks" from USS Enterprise and...
• Fictional bird from VF-41 "Black Aces" from USS America! Its fictional because its got serial number 007 (Aug 7) for my birthday and tactical number 019 for my wife's birthday (May 19)!
And that is that! The shape of the noses were the worst part to fix (right after the raised panel lines and the bazillion rivets), but I think I'm happy with them. And don't look under them!!! I'll keep them shiny for now, and I shan't do any panel washes, for obvious reasons. But it was fun, fun, fun till my daddy took my sanity away! Enjoy... and I'm going to take a break from classic Revell for now...

Henschel what?

2007-03-03T13:51:00.000+11:00

This is a Henschel 126. Its by Matchbox. I don't have a clue what this plane's claim to fame is. It didn't even have a proper name. Just a number. Matchbox does that. They did kits of planes that no one would even look twice at. Like a BAC Strikemaster. Or a Dornier Skyservant. Or a Henschel 126. What I do know is its box art is fantastic. That it can tow gliders. And that it fought in Russia. To an 8 year old, that's more than enough for you to spend hard saved pesos on and use it in your bedroom wars with you brothers. And for you to remember it 30 odd years later. And build it again.

All things dry and crispy

2007-01-03T23:53:00.000+11:00

Hey, its a Valentine. No really, its a tank called a Valentine!

I had quite a fascination with desert armor. And this was way before the US invaded Iraq or Afghanistan. Ever since seeing that old BBC show "The World at War" narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier about the desert war, and remembering that old Bantam book "Brazen Chariots" by Robert Crisp, I've always gone and thought that fighting in the desert in AFVs was akin to taking your tank to the moon. Or something like that. And then, there is that classic footage of some AfrikaCorps panzer crewmen cooking an egg on the roof of their tank.

This here is the Dragon kit (reboxed Alan from Russia) which I bought way back in 1996 on a trip to HK, from Universal Hobbies. I didn't build it until 2001 here in Oz, when on a trip back to Manila I had a chance to bring the unbuilt kit back with me. And my little saga with the desert war continues.

Cheerios

2006-11-28T11:12:00.000+11:00

Incredibly, I just finished another one of this exact same kit almost 30 years ago in 1976. Its the Matchbox 1/72 F-4M Phantom. Its a mean beast, and I am sure the Royal Air Force had a bit of fun with their Yank counterparts. "Mate, this bloody thing doesn't want to fly right." Its still a beauty though, ugly as that nose seems.

Do you remember love?

2006-05-20T01:29:00.000+10:00

Needless to say, I didn't! But with a brother's recent visit to us, my wife and I were introduced to Macross, the original Japanese version, all over again. I thought the old 80s series by Harmony Gold was cool. That was until I saw everything again in Japanese with subtitles: it was incredible! The story, the music, everything was fantastic. Hollywood or the USA can not match this epic. And seeing the movie, "Do You Remember Love?" capped it all.

But the real treat was finding out Hasegawa (yes! THAT Hasegawa!) produced all the VF-1s, VF-19s and VF-0s from all the beautiful Macross series throughout the year in 1/72 scale! And the passion comes full circle, the story complete. And I can't get enough of it. Oddly enough, my wife loves it even more!

So the yellow wings mean...?

2006-05-14T23:51:00.000+10:00

The Matchbox 1/72 SB2C Helldiver. One of the most ungainly, portly looking aircraft to ever take the air. Historically, one of the most insignificant planes to land on a carrier. It wasn't fast. It wasn't well armed. It didn't participate in any battles. Nor did the British, inheriting the planes intended for the French, actually do anything with them. And when I bought the kit (for again, P20 from SM Cubao in 1985), all my brothers asked was: "And you're gonna dogfight us with that?" Who cares. It was a pretty plane. Silver and yellow, a bit of blue. And that was when I really started building models for real. Not because of how well it would do against a pretend enemy airforce.

Dragonstrike

2006-05-14T23:39:00.000+10:00

Back when DML, or Dragon Models Limited, first came out in the mid-90s, my hobby world was stunned by seeing quality kits produced by something other than Tamiya. For the first time, there were 1/35 subjects that we haven't seen before, and it was for me the start of a Silver Age for modelling. I was in the middle of my advertising career then, and I had a disposable income that I didn't want to put into the usual mortgages, rent or car plans. No way. Dragon kits were coming out, and it was a great time to start modelling again.

The M4A1 Sherman came out, and I knew I wanted to build it as a British Sherman I in Alamein colors. I didn't know how to, as the wide, wide world of the web wasn't there yet, but I knew I had to. I actually saved up for it, hopped onto a bicycle and pedaled to Special Hobbies in Cubao, and got the kit into a knapsack. I was ecstatic.

And that is a true example of Dragonstrike. You get hyped up so much for something, and the drive pushes you to building the best you can possibly build. I scratchbuilt the sand skirts and jerry can rigs. The gear came out of odds and ends from the spares. I tried to dust it up so much the camo scheme got buried. But hey, I was happy. Nowadays, Dragon still does it time and again with the new kits they come up with in great prices. Metal barrels. Etch parts. Fantastic subjects. Its a great time to be a modeller today.

Ito Lang

2006-05-03T12:06:00.000+10:00

National Bookstore in the 1980s had an unusual reputation for me. Especially the one located at Quezon Boulevard, next to Tropical Hut and McDonalds. You know where. It was the only place within walking distance from my grandmother's house where I could find models for sale. And at that time, around 1985 to 1987, they had tons of the stuff. But I was bitten by the armor bug then, or rather, I was in an arms race with brother number two. His Panzers were overruning my bed once a bit too often in the 1/35 scale, so I thought it would be best that a suitable anti-tank weapon be found to deal with him. I found the Tamiya kit there and promptly saved up for it. It was a quick build, and an easy task with my uncle's airbrush. I was rather proud of that model as I think I did it justice (for my teen mind, that meant getting it right to the directions). I never saw the kit on the shelves again though, because Tamiya pulled it from production.

This current model is one I recently built in tribute to that first one. Of course I never heard of Zimmeritt before so this has it on. Of course I didn't know that the long L/70 gun needed special bogies so this one has a shorter L/48. And of course I never knew these guys needed to be as dirty as possible, so there go the pastels. But its still that old soldier for me, standing guard over that pillow at the top of the old bed.

Striking twice

2006-05-02T22:05:00.000+10:00

The Matchbox 1/72 scale P-38J Lightning is an old favorite. I used to stare at it for (what seemed like) hours outside the glass case in SM Shoemart Cubao's toy section. The box artwork was one of the most stunning, with a flaming zero falling in the background, and Tommy McGuire's Pudgy V clearly written. It was there on the shelves everytime I came to that place, and always beyond reach, as it was a purple series box, and there were so many cheaper orange series planes that I wanted to get. On my birthday in 1982, I had the chance to get it with the 100 pesos my parents and aunts put together, but when I got there, it was gone. (Good thing Matchbox released an F-16 then, and that's what I got!) And I did get Hasegawa's then-new P-38F/L.

But here we are, in 2006. True, its a terrible Lightning kit. The panel lines were trenches and at the wrong spots. The propellers spun the wrong way. And the detail left much to be desired. But its a Lightning, dagnabbit. And when good Mr Applebee brought out one at a swap meet in 2002, look who was there to get it straightaway. And here it is, in its full glory.

The Etta Girl II

2006-04-29T00:29:00.000+10:00

The role-playing stage of my life was memorable. We didn't have any wimpy swords and elves games. No funny dragons or goblinos. No way. We fought World War III. In 1988, the closing days of the Cold War, we were fighting a losing war in the year 2000 in Kalisz, Poland. We, a motley crew of soldiers of fortune, fought, adventured, stole better looking guns and defeated (for the most part) the enemy. We shot each other's horses and pulled out long pistoooools from holsters while shuddering from recoil from Automags and M60s. We piled the Warsaw Pact's stock of Kalashnikovs on a trailer and never worried about fuel or ammunition. And we rode the Etta Girl out of Poland into Germany. We had the Etta Girl, a modified Marder IFV, and Jake, Elwood, the Alicer, the Maru and the Ginggoy went on to become legends. Pretty soon the Simpliciano Marauders with DARD Baby joined their ranks. Good stuff. By the way, don't pick up that stray rifle if you don't have a helmet on. And hey, that is a NICE gun.

The Rose

2006-04-29T00:13:00.000+10:00

Well, this should be titled 'From Rose'. This kit was a present to me one birthday from my favorite sis-in-law, who is my favorite because she is the only one of my in-laws who give me presents that I really love. No sweaters, no socks, no underwear. She gives me models to build. Love it! And love this kit! This is the Tamiya 1/72 P-51D Mustang, dubbed to be the best kit of the Mustang ever made. You literally just shake the box with some glue and paint and it comes out built. As you can see from the detail, this is a truly remarkable kit, and leaves the old Matchbox and Airfix kits back in the Stone Age. Ergo, I call it 'The Rose'.

The Survivor

2006-04-29T00:05:00.000+10:00

Now this kit is one of the oldest I have surviving. And it is now here with me in Melbourne, after over 15 years. This kit first came to my attention when I bought it in Makati's old Nova Fontana. It was the old Tamiya kit, the one with the four paratroopers (which had the worst possible molding, but the best box artwork!). It was a work of passion, this Stug. It was the chunkiest, blockiest, bulkiest piece of armour, yet it looked mean and lean. With the help of my Uncle Rommel (ironic!), the airbrush was put to good use in doing the camo scheme. I had yet to learn about seamlines and zimmeritt, so you'll forgive me if it doesn't look right. But hey, it was 1989. I thought I had left this back in Manila to collect more dust for weathering, but an opportunity presented itself for me to stuff it in a shoebox to bring with me to migrate. And though I built better Stugs from Dragon, this will still be an old favorite.

Barrel of laughs

2006-04-28T23:58:00.000+10:00

Imagine this: you get excited seeing this box of a kit you want to build; you pay up at the counter and take the trip home all excited to get started on the plane. You get home, open up the box and there it is. A puny, tiny little airplane. But wait, this can't be. It looks too funny to be a real plane. Its like a barrel with wings. Oddly enough, that's what the Yanks called this thing: a barrel. Oh well, let's see. What can we do with it. Then you read about it. You read about how it held the line in the dark days of the Pacific war. You read about how it fought Zeros. You read about how it helped win Midway. Wow. So there we go. An Academy 1/72 F4F-1 Wildcat. It may look funny, but it did its part.

Tribute to the Goo

2006-04-28T23:46:00.000+10:00

One thing you remember well if you have younger brothers who sometimes end up owning something you wish you did is that one day, you can get what you didn't. Case in point: my brother Googoo has the privelege to get the Tamiya Panzer IVE (which was then the cat's pajamas in high-detail kits, but today's DML one puts it to shame.) I so wished I was the one who had that (and Gani's Tiger, and Inge's 1/32 Stuka) because they all looked to be such great builds! Fast forward to 2000, as newbie-Aussie me takes a trek to distant Dandenong on a bike trip to purchase the aforementioned Panzer IV. And I promised myself that as I built it, it will be as a tribute to those great kits my brothers had. Long may they stay in my memory and inspire me to build more and more!

Getting it right

2006-04-28T23:36:00.000+10:00

When I was 11, back in the golden age when your mom was overseas and sent a massive box of model kits for you and your brothers to divide and build armies with, I picked out the Airfix Mosquito as mine to build. Of course, I remember I got the nose upside down on the fuselage, the engine exhausts pointing the wrong way, the landing gear on backward and breaking every extreneous bit off before finishing the build. Then I spilled paint all over the wrong places and eventually melted all the wingtips and tail off with gallons of sticky Revell plastic cement from a tube.

In 2002, I decided to try and get it right. Thanks to Victoria Hobby Centre for the kit, and Daryl for telling me that the camo wasn't supposed to be feathered, but hard edged. Oh well, I tried.

Climb every mountain

2006-04-28T23:26:00.000+10:00

Sometime in 1997, I read a bit about the bloody battles the British and the Japanese fought in Burma in 1944, namely at Imphal and Kohima. One of the notes I really got into was finding out that the British used outdated M3 Lee/Grant tanks and brought them up all the way to the top of Mount Kohima. It was the highest altitude that tanks were used in combat. And for me, that was something. I could imagine these lumbering (and tall for a tank!) brutes climbing steep mountain roads blasting bunkers left and right. I got the old Tamiya M3 Lee kit from Lil's in Megamall, shortly after leaving Basic. So this means this kit is a bit of the my return to modelling. And this also marked the first time I did weathering and used Gunze paints!

Rumanian Emil

2006-04-28T23:17:00.000+10:00

This is the second Matchbox 1/72 Messerschmitt 109E that I've built. The very first one was inspired; back in 1982, I was dared by a classmate (Glenn Imbang I think) to do a model over the weekend. And did a kit I did. Saving up a measly P20 for a short trip to SM Shoemart Cubao, where stacks of the classic Matchbox kits were to be found. I have to admit, though it took me 24 hours to build AND paint, a pretty JG27 plane in desert camouflage was the result.

In 2002, after a trip to the swap meet, I dared myself to do it again. And here we are! But now, I did the Rumanian option. By the way, that's my wife's hair as a radio wire! Thanks hon!

Tora tora

2006-02-15T12:08:00.000+11:00

In 1990, the Philippine government headed by Cory Aquino experienced its worst crisis in the form of a coup attempt. The biggest, most violent one ever attempted. Battles were fought in and around the city of Manila. Even airstrikes were done by both sides of the coin. And we all watched on the sides.

Some of us closer than most. This model is of one of the rebel's aircraft. A North American T-28, Vietnam-vintage and refurbished for the PAF, painted black all over but with RAM-SFP (Reform the Armed Forces movement, Soldiers of the Filipino People) markings. I first saw this while watching on the roof of the old house while it strafed and fired rockets onto Camp Aguinaldo and Camp Bonifacio.

The government came down hard on to the mutineers. This aircraft, along with the rest of its compatriots, were destroyed by Phil Air Force F-5Es while parked in Cubi Point in Cavite. And the coup ended as abruptly as it began.

The first of the many

2005-12-20T20:38:00.000+11:00

Sir Winston Churchill attributed the salvation of the British Isles to the Royal Air Force in 1941, whose pilots flew the first mark of this famous fighter. In 1981 I attribute my entire modelling hobby to this fighter as well, albeit in a much smaller scale.

Sometime in 1981 I built a 1/72 Matchbox Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX over the course of one weekend. It took me 48 hours (with breaks to sleep, eat and play) to build, paint and detail the small 20 peso kit which I bought the friday before at the local SM Shoemart toy department.

It was my favorite plane. I read all the accounts of how Spits flew themselves to battle, how pilots rode rings around the Luftwaffe against all the odds. And in our brotherly 'model wars', I fought countless dogfights with my second brother's ME109s and FW190s, ME110s and even the odd ME262, and they always gave my Spitfire a degree of respect unheard of in juvenile wargaming. I shot them all down more than once.

The Matchbox Spitfire Mark IX is a landmark in my modelling life. Much can be said about that, and none will dispute it.

The Balrog

2005-11-17T22:44:00.000+11:00

Sometime in my youth, when my three other brothers and I still fought wars over our beds with miniature armies, we all feared who would come out with the most modern battle tank that would rule over all the plastic armies of the bedsheets. Of course I had a massive 1/72 air force that can't be beat. It was only after we outgrew compiling all possible models into legions (and squadrons) that we started building models to see who could do the best - paint jobs, weathering and all.

But when we grew up, we all feared an imaginary tank one brother, Inigo, laid claim on. The British Challenger MBT. It was more fearsome than an M1 Abrams (I don't know why), and it was certainly impressive. One day I vowed to build a beast.

Cut to 20 years later, and the Challenger II was released by Trumpeter, in a version that invaded Iraq in 2003. And thus we see Bea's Balrog built.

But may I ask my brother, what happened to Bea?

The Jug

2005-11-16T21:54:00.000+11:00

In 1944, along with the rest of the Allied forces landing back into the Philippines, the first Mexican Armed Forces unit ever to serve outside of Mexico since the 1800s landed. 201st Squadron of the Mexican Expeditionary Air Force, or Escuadron Aereo de Pelea 201 de la Fuerza Aerea Expedicionaria Mexicana flew P-47D Thunderbolts. These massive aircraft, the biggest single engined single-seat fighter used by any air force in WW2 were aptly nicknamed Juggernauts. And the Mexicans knew how to fly them.

Its an interesting story for me, a Filipino. The Mexicans, like the Filipinos, were under Spanish rule for as long as 350 years. Both countries shares such similar histories. And with the Japanese taking over the Philippines in 1941, it seemed right that the Mexicans were assigned to the US 5th Air Force to help retake the archipelago. Its like long lost brothers coming to the rescue.

The fact wasn't lost to me when I picked up Revell's massive 1/32 P-47D kit. It was the biggest thing on my shelf until the 1/32 Corsair and the 1/32 P-38 Lightning came along (but that's another story). But it was an impressive beast to build, and I could hear Pancho and Ricardo whistle a long whistle staring up at the monster. The British commented upon seeing the Jugs that the best way to avoid German fighters while flying a P-47 was to duck down and run around inside. And more than a few of the USA's Jugs came home with just bits left for a tail, but still landing in one piece.

So here's a tribute to the monster P-47. And to the amigos from Mexico who helped the allied cause in the Philippines. It felt like a homecoming for a lot of the pilots, they say, when the 201st landed in Luzon. I bet it really was.

Being Pinoy

2005-11-01T01:03:00.000+11:00

One of my earliest modelling memories was going to Greenhills and visiting the Greenhills Arcade. It was around 1978. For all you young ones out there, its the mall in Greenhills which used to house Mom and Pop green grocers, Krizareth the old comic place, and the mysterious, unnamed model shop. I never found out the name of the shop, only that it was run by a few young guys, not unlike my Uncle Rommel, in their 20s.

It was right next to the novelty magic shop where they sold rubber chickens, plastic poo and frankenstien masks. I remember the smell of the plastic and rubber; it smelt... freshly imported? Anyways, the great thing about the greenhills model shop was it had a glass display case wherein there were built kits on display on red felt paper circles. And they were awesome. I saw my first built M3 Stuart there in 1/72 scale I think. There was a whole slew of 1/72 armour.

And then there was the aircraft. The biggest was the 1/32 Phil Air Force F-86A. It even had a stepladder and some doors open. And then there was the P-26 in Philippine army air corps markings.

I never forgot that P-26. It was an ugly, squat thing. But it shot down a Zero. Even I knew that then, in my youth. Jesus Villamor was a big hero to me because of all the history readings and stories my grandfathers (both of them) used to tell me. And I told myself I will build one of those one day.

Flash forward to 2002. Just recently having joined IPMS Australia, I wanted to do something to show off to the club that would be sore of a defining moment; something everyone would remember about me for a long time. One time I was browsing through VHC and I saw a second-hand Hasegawa P-26. Opening the box, it still had the colour chart with the brown and sand PAAC blue diamonds. A quick purchase later, and a Squadron mini source book later still, and there we have it. Villamor's P-26, his amazing flying machine.

But it will also be a tribute to those young men and their amazing red felt paper circles.

Matchbox and SM Shoemart

2005-10-31T23:12:00.000+11:00

This is my Matchbox 1/72 Me 109E. As of last count, this is my third one of the same kit. But this I built in 2002, shortly before my wife and I bought the house we now live in.

The first Matchbox Me109 I bought was from SM Shoemart Cubao in 1984. It cost all of P19.95 (50 Aussie cents), and it was built in less than 24 hours that weekend in time for me to bring it to school to show off to my friends. It was my pride and joy then, as I managed to get it all nice and neat and brag to Glenn Imbang, another keen modeller friend from school, how I managed to hand paint the canopy frame without getting spills on the windows.

It didn't last long in that state though. Being the eldest of six brothers means that you have to look out for stray hands looking for a dogfight with either a Matchbox Brewster Buffallo or a Matchbox Focke Wulf 190. But my 109, which was done in desert colours of JG27, took the prize everytime I looked at it, and it was a damn good looking plane.

The second one was bought in 1989, when I was in college. I just wanted to recreate that beautiful 109 I remembered, and though Matchbox kits were getting rarer and the kit boxes all of the sudden were ugly black things, I still managed a decent copy of the first one.

In 2001 I discovered Swap n sells here in Oz. Now all the old kits are there to find, if you look hard enough. And slowly but surely, the old Matchbox kits of my youth will come back one by one. I did this 109E in the alternate paint scheme offered by Matchbox, which was Rumanian air force. That's a strand of my wife's hair for the antenna. And that's a handpainted canopy frame, just like the one I did in 1988.

Waltzin Matilda

2005-10-31T22:46:00.000+11:00

To start things off, I'd like to share this photo of my 1/35 Tamiya Matilda.

I finished construction of this around July 2005. I remember first seeing this kit way, way back when I just finished 6th grade. It was around 1980. I was in an old mall in Makati called Goldcrest, right next to Bricktown I think, near Quad. (It was still Quad then, as Quad II was just a concept). Anyways, I was with my mom then in one of her trips to the business center, and I usually ask to wander about the mall and visit my favorite places, even then.

I went into Lil's Futaba of course, which had just about the only hobby shops in town then. And lo and behold, I was surrounded by boxes and boxes of kits.

Under all those kits on the center shelves was a pile of... discards. It was a bunch of kits that didn't have any boxes, and being sold for a lesser price. Not that I could afford any of it. But for what seemed like an eternity, my eyes caught a plastic bag with the complete kit of a Tamiya Matilda. I held it for the longest time, hoping my mom's hand would come tap me on the shoulder and rescue me from calculating how much lunch money I need to save to get the unreachable price of P35.

I left it there of course. And that was the last I saw of the Tamiya Matildas.

Until 1999. I migrated to Melbourne, and the very first place I go into on Swanston Street is the Victorian Hobby Centre. I made new friends with the staff, and lo and behold, as how it was nearly 20 years ago, there was a fully boxed Tamiya Matilda. Of course, I bought it. And now you see it built.

And as I read the box side, it actually says, Made in the Philippines.